wiredfool

1. Summertime — Janis Joplin
2. Ripple — Grateful Dead
3. Boy from Tupelo — Emmylou Harris
4. Heaven — Talking Heads
5. Hello My Baby — Ladysmith Black Mambazo
6. Too Darn Hot — Ella Fitzgerald
7. Oh Maria — The Paperboys
8. Late In the Evening — Paul Simon
9. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) — They Might Be Giants
10. Amorosa — Omar Torrez
11. Back to the Garden — Jason Webley
12. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville — R.E.M.
13. All Around The World Or The Myth of Fingerprints — Paul Simon
14. The Big Country — Talking Heads
15. Tea In The Sahara — The Police

Annotations:

1. Summertime — nearly too easy to choose. Janis Joplin’s version of this standard is the feel of a summer afternoon when things are a bit too hot. a little languid, a little edgy. I was considering one of two Ella Fitzgerald versions, but they didn’t have the tension that Janis adds.
2. Ripple — Moving towards evening. Calming, cooling. Probably my favorite Dead song.
3. Boy from Tupelo — It’s hard to describe this one, other than it seems to fit the mood from the previous two songs, and I needed something like that.
4. Heaven — Is this heaven, no it’s Iowa. Vacations can be a place where nothing ever happens.
5. Hello my Baby — I saw Ladysmith Black Mombaso at Bumbershoot a couple of years ago, this song gets me every time.
6. Too Darn Hot — What happens to love in a climate where there’s no air conditioning.
7. Oh Maria — Another Bumbershoot selection, this one from a local band. I remember dancing to this in hot, crowded, midday shows.
8. Late in the Evening — Summer, Evening, Clubs.
9. Istanbul — I’m thinking silly pop songs here. Since I only got the album recently, I haven’t lived through a summer with it, but it feels right.
10. Amorosa — Another local band, Afro cuban flamenco funk. But I’ve gone on and on about Omar here before.
11. Back to the Garden — Yet another local performer who’s train only runs in the summertime. He is reborn every year on May 1, and dies on Halloween. When you listen to this, imagine a guy with an accordion, busking at a festival or on a street corner, waving a large beet on a stick.
12. Rockville — End of the summer. Can’t go back, have to go forward.
13. All Around the World… — Elvis is a watermelon. It’s all an illusion. All a memory. From perhaps the only album that I’ve bought on tape, lp and cd.
14. The Big Country — That is what the US looks from the air.
15. Tea in the Sahara — To be stranded in the desert in eternal summer, waiting for something to happen. All memories fade to a golden glow of summer, sand and sun.